General
Authorities Search for U.S. Student Missing in the Dominican Republic
Sudiksha Konanki, 20, who was on spring break from the University of Pittsburgh, was last seen on a beach in Punta Cana.
The authorities have been searching by land, air and sea for a University of Pittsburgh student who disappeared last week while on spring break in the popular Dominican Republic resort of Punta Cana.
The National Police said in a statement on Sunday that the student, Sudiksha Konanki, 20, was last seen early Thursday when she went to the beach by the Hotel Riu Republica with an unnamed friend who has been “under investigation.”
Ms. Konanki, a resident of Loudoun County, Va., had been staying at the hotel with five friends after arriving in the Dominican Republic on March 3, the police said.
When the United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic alerted the national police on Friday morning that Ms. Konanki had disappeared, officials began an exhaustive search of the beach and the surrounding area, using drones, helicopters, divers, boats, police dogs and other resources, the authorities said.
Investigators have established that Ms. Konanki disappeared sometime after 4:15 a.m. on Thursday, when she and other young people she was with were seen on surveillance video a few meters from the beach entrance, the police said.
Investigators were interviewing the people who were with her to help guide the search, the police said.
